John (Gungie) Rivera built his name on the New York music scene, first as a young DJ in the Bronx and later as a producer and promoter.

He spun records alongside contemporaries David Morales and Junior Vasquez, and managed rapper Fat Joe in the 1990s.

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But his true calling came six years ago, when his 6-year-old son, Cristian, died from a rare pediatric brain tumor known as diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG.

"I told my son that I wouldn't stop fighting until I found a cure," says Rivera, 51.

He couldn't save his boy, but he made a promise — to help researchers discover a breakthrough for the debilitating and deadly disease.

He's doing that by raising money through the Cristian Rivera Foundation, which is hosting its seventh annual celebrity gala on Nov. 17 at the Broad Street Ballroom in Manhattan. This year's honorees include acclaimed Puerto Rican actress Miriam Colón, who recently received a National Medals of Arts award from President Obama.

Rivera says donations go toward medical facilities that are working to find a cure for DIPG, which afflicts 200 to 300 more children each year in the U.S.

Rivera's son was diagnosed in January 2007 at age 4. Most children are given three to 18 months to live, but Cristian did something extraordinary — he hung on for two years and three days from his initial diagnosis.

"He was exceptionally bright, exceptionally talented," Rivera says. "The thing about DIPG kids is that they're so special."

John (Gungie) Rivera and son, Cristian.

Rivera uses his experience to communicate with other parents of DIPG children who are bewildered by doctor visits, hospital stays and fear of the future.

With the illness so rare, the even smaller number of affected Latino families need somewhere to turn, Rivera says.

"I become a shoulder for the dads who are too macho to show what they're feeling," Rivera says.

These days, Rivera is balancing both his charity and his longtime love: music.

"La Gloria," a Latin cabaret review he is co-producing, opens Nov. 21 at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center on the Lower East Side. Part of the proceeds from the show are going toward the foundation.

Cristian is never far from Rivera's thoughts. When he's feeling blue, he says, he goes inside his son's untouched bedroom, with his toy trains and pictures, and gets inspired to carry on their fight.